Richard Long
The term "Conceptual Art" is based on the simple but revolutionary premise that art should be mainly about ideas instead of material objects. In other words, artists should focus on what they think, not on how things look. Conceptual artists usually set aside the traditional processes of art like painting or carving. [Sol LeWitt, Paragraphs on Conceptual Art] Consequently, their work can be confusing because it does not fit the conventional definitions of what art is and often it doesn't even fit comfortably into the places we associate with viewing art, such as galleries or museums. One such conceptual artist is Richard Long who essentially makes art out of nature. Some of his pieces are long spontaneous hikes designed to bring art into nature, such as his clockwise spiral walk through central England, entitled A Thousand Miles, A Thousand Hours. Other works include bringing his journeys and hikes into museums and galleries where he draws simple figures like circles out of the sediment from the places he has been. Although, his work may seem very simple and mundane there is a fascinating quality about his work and he is an important conceptual artist who is well worth studying. [www.richardlong
Long translates his deeply personal experiences in the wilderness into sculptures and mud drawings that are created for exhibition spaces and private collections. Pieces composed of flint, slate, feathers, pine needles, sticks, and other rustic materials become metaphors for the paths taken on his ramblings: the spirals, circles, and lines, if extended beyond the gallery walls, would trace actual distances traveled by the artist. [BBC Audio Interviews: Richard Long] The sculptures are not, therefore, representations of nature per se but rather aesthetic documents of Long's engagement with the land and poetic evocations of the beauty and grandeur of the earth. Such is the case with Red Slate Circle, which consists of 474 stones from a New York State quarry. When it is installed in the Guggenheim's rotunda, the monumental ring echoes the building's unique spiral while conjuring images of vast canyons, still lakes, and stone pathways leading into the distance. BBC Audio Interviews: Richard Long, October 28, 1998, Richard Long talks to Robert Cork, www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/audiointerviews/profilepages/longr1.shtml In the 1980s, Long began making new types of mud works using handprints applied directly to the wall. He also constructed large lines and a circle of stones, slate, and sticks, often collected on his walks or, in later years, from locations near the exhibition sites. In 1986, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum organized a major exhibition of Long's work from the 1970s and 1980s. In 1988, Long was given a solo exhibition at Neue Galerie-Sammlung Ludwig, Aachen, in conjunction with his receipt of the Kunstpreis Aachen. In 1989, he was awarded the prestigious Turner Prize in London. The Hayward Gallery, London, organized an exhibition of Long's work in 1991. [BBC Audio Interviews: Richard Long; www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/audiointerviews/] To conclude, Richard Long is a truly unique and influential conceptual artist, which we can learn a lot from. His work has been featured in many prestigious galleries and his name has become a popular one in the modern art world. The simple yet ingenious idea of using nature as the subje
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Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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